This Is a Prayer for Lughnasadh. This Is a Prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for Lughnasadh.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.  Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark.  Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what we have.  Lughnasadh is a prayer for the Resistance.

This is a prayer for hopeful people who plant saved seeds in the chilly ground, in the February dark, charging the seeds and calling Ceres — people who want a clean harvest.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.

This is a prayer for mothers bearing children, poets birthing poems, engineers who see how to strengthen a bridge.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.

Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark.  Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what we have.  Lughnasadh is a prayer for the Resistance.

This is a prayer for the scholar in her garret, making the cleanest translation, for the teacher setting off sparks, for the whistleblower who takes the risk.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.

This is a prayer for the farmer who grows an extra row for the food bank, for the activist in plastic handcuffs, for the nurse who ignores the insurance company’s orders.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.

Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark.  Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what we have.  Lughnasadh is a prayer for the Resistance.

This is a prayer for the coder who fends off the hack, for the politician who doesn’t take the bribe, for the paper ballot.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.

This is a prayer for phone bankers, demonstrators, people with signs in their yard.  This is a prayer for early voters, people who call Senators, door-to-door canvasers.  This is a prayer for the Resistance.

Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark.  Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what we have.  Lughnasadh is a prayer for the Resistance.

And, of course, this is a prayer for yarrow and Black-Eyed Susan, for summer squash and basil, for peaches and corn, for fat blackberries and seedy dill.  This is a prayer for Resistance, because Lughnasadh is a festival of Resistance.

Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark.  Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what we have.  Lughnasadh is a prayer for the Resistance.

Lughnasadh is how our ancestors said that they would resist winter. They would have less now, but they would store up what they did have against the long, dark nights when tummies rumbled, illness went untreated for lack of herbs, old people died from the cold.  And our ancestors said, “No.”  Lughnasadh was a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of their look towards the dark.  Lughnasadh was the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what they had.

Lughnasadh has always been a prayer for the Resistance.

I am praying it now.   Will you pray it with me?

Picture found here.